Manhattan Nest + Lowe’s: Who Wants a Makeover?!

Have you ever thought to yourself “hey, I wish Daniel (that’s me, FYI) would show up at my door and do a whirlwind makeover of a space in my house“? You probably have not had that thought. But start thinking it? Because it could totally happen!

When my friendly sponsors at Lowe’s reached out and asked if I’d like to pass some Lowe’s love along to a Manhattan Nest reader this spring, I hopped on it! Because I like you guys! Sounds fun! Sign me up!

If you read my blog, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Lowe’s is pretty much my home away from home. I tend to be at my local Lowe’s several times a week, and they always impress me with their knowledgeable and friendly staff, and quality products to match. It seems a little silly to feel that way about a big box store, but when you’re in and out of hardware stores as much as I am, you come to appreciate the small stuff. Going to pick up that extra tube of caulk or box of finish nails can be a drag, but those trips aren’t so bad when I get to catch up with Deb in the garden center, or Keith in doors and windows, or Sue at check-out, or Frank in appliances, or Sexy Ron who sometimes helps me with lumber. On top of that, Lowe’s carries a lot of seriously cute and nice stuff! I think a lot of people tend to think of Lowe’s as a place to by 2x4s and drywall screws, but I’m always super impressed by their collection of all sorts of home goods, lighting, outdoor stuff—it’s become a pretty indispensable resource in my life and one of the first places I look for…well, kind of anything!

SO! Lowe’s is teaming up with me (and seven other great bloggers!) to do a spring makeover for one of you! Do you have a back deck in need of some TLC? A boring bathroom that needs a pick-me-up? Maybe you just moved into your house and really want something checked off the list? Maybe you’ve been there a while and are stuck on what to do with that pesky guest bedroom? Let’s fix it!

Here’s how it works: I get to choose one applicant for a makeover! Sorry, international readers—you gotta be within the US and within reasonable proximity to a Lowe’s store. The makeover can be interior or exterior, but should be contained to one space—like a room, a backyard, a front yard, you get the idea. After choosing an applicant, I’ll work with you to design up the space and then Lowe’s will bring me right to your door to make it happen. I’ll have a robust team of Lowe’s helpers at my disposal, and all of us will have a day or two to make your space totally awesome with the healthy product budget they’ve provided to get her done. Sound like a plan? Great!

Ground Rules:

You should be looking to fix up a space within your residence!

The makeover project should be able to be completed within 24 hours.

You must be the owner of your own home (sorry, renters! it’s a legal thing).

You have to be outgoing, energetic, and fun with unique stories to tell!

You have to be comfortable been on camera and/or interviewed by media.

You have to be in need of expert design help from one of the participating bloggers (pick me!).

You have to be able to make quick decisions in order to keep within the tight time constraints.

You have to be available for a 2-day period to complete the makeover, which will take place between February 9th and May 1.

You have to allow photos of your home to be shared online.

You must be 21 years of age or older to apply.

You have to complete the online application form and agree to the Terms below.

To apply for your Manhattan Nest + Lowe’s Spring Makeover, click here! Applications will only be accepted from now until THIS WEDNESDAY at 11:59 p.m. EST, so hurry your cutie booty along and get to applying!

This post is in partnership with Lowe’s! Thank you for supporting my sponsors!

118 Comments

Oh, shit! How am I supposed to choose between you and Kim and Scott? Can I apply for this awesome challenge with both of you? And if I have two awful rooms I can’t choose between, could I just submit pictures of both and you can choose for me?

What an awesome idea! Adds another reason to the list of why living in the US would be so much cooler than living in Perth (literally the most isolated capital city in the world). Meanwhile I will live vicariously through the winner. Good luck everyone!

I will sign my husband for this! I dislike pics of myself! and I will pick you! now the question is a room? or the exterior of my house? the paint color is awful :( the people who used to owned did not take care of it! I am more incline for the exterior given that presentation is key we all know!

Hi Daniel, Wow, knock yourself out!
That’s so cool. I remember when you did up the guestroom at Max’ mothers house (in such a really short amount of time), so I expect you will do a great job at this. Sadly we live in Europe otherwise I’d have a bathroom (or are they excluded?) I would let you get down and dirty with (just kidding)… I could show you around Amsterdam after work,

I’m guessing you also have to reside in North America. Anyhow, also a renter, so no luck there on two accounts for my kitchen, my pantry and me. Best of luck to you! Will you also post the results, if picked?

Oh, the dreaded outgoing, energetic and fun thing. And the dealing with the public thing. I need to find the introvert’s secret makeover site! (Maybe gnomesrus?) But congrats to whoever gets to work with you. It will be fun to read about it.

HEY LOWES, LISTEN UP! (I say Lowes because I know Daniel has no control over this). So, somewhat of a deal breaker… I’m in Canada, but not the stereotypical part of Canada you’re thinking of… I’m literally about four hours from where Daniel lives (which is way closer to him than most of the the U.S. – I know you know this.) Anyway, my point is that Lowes is in Canada too! I’m close to a few of them. I’m super close to a brand new one that is about to open up! Lowes would definitely benefit from some advertising in the great white north! You just bought up Rona… a pretty substantial Canadian company. This is a great time for even more advertising up here. I’ll let you put signs up all over my lawn if you want. Anyway, let me know if any of this changes your mind and I will be all over this application. (I realize this is unlikely, probably due to legal mumbo jumbo but I had to try!)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I confirmed with Lowe’s that this is just for the States. Sad face! I love Canada but it’s a whole different PR team doing their own stuff, and I think complications with visas and stuff would be kind of prohibitive. Maybe they’ll do something similar with Canadian bloggers, though!

well obvi I’m “international” but whoever does win will be one lucky camper.
Not sure you heard about the Target debacle in Canada..they opened a ton of stores and closed them all in two years….but luckily the empty Target just down the street will soon be a Lowe’s….can’t wait because I too enjoy a trip to Lowes and not just for extra caulk. (ahem)

Hi Daniel, Ive been admiring your renos and redos since you were a student in that apartment in Manhatten. I learned a lot and watched you grow as well. Wow what an awesome opportunity this is! I would absolutely love for you to come to the mountains in Western North Carolina, near Asheville to help me with my living space in my townhouse. I will apply and I hope hope hope to be chosen for this. But is any case I wish you and the lucky participant a really fun experience! Thanks for doing this!

Got my thoughts together after this initial burst of excitement and submitted an application complete with not-quite-bright-enough early morning light from this morning. It was hard to choose which space to pick, but I hope you can help my figure out my little city yard! You’d love Atlanta, I promise!

I would absolutely apply, but in the off chance that I won I would quite literally die of happiness. I’m in the very early stages of redo-ing my kitchen and bath right now and nothing could be better. I am technically a renter, but I know the owner would be MORE than happy to see this done as the kitchen especially hasn’t been touched since the 50s (which may have been cute if it had been taken care of, but eh not so much.) I love you, I love Lowe’s, and can’t wait to read about the winner with extreme jealousy.

Also, saw you are in LA, if you ever want to awkwardly hang with a hugely obsessed fan for kicks and giggles, hit a girl up.

Yes! I am SO excited! I absolutely adore your aesthetic and have always thought it would be amazing if you could just show up at my house and fix it all for me. You are making dreams come true, Daniel!

This is my DREAM, to have you come to my house and tell me everything I’m doing wrong and fix it! It was so hard to choose a room, but I ended up applying for my “office” since it’s small and should be do-able in the brief window. I would LOVE for you to tear my kitchen down to the studs and overhaul it, but that is not a two-day project!

Oh. My. GOD! Just submitted my Jersey City condo for this, it _desperately_ needs some Daniel love and home swagger!!! The whole thing is just sad so knock yourself out! Also, did I mention I look good on camera? ;-) Kidding!

Yessssss!!!! I applied! (And commented on every social media site because I’m too excited) My husband and I (and baby) are struggling to finish renovations to a vacation home we purchased last year and we need help! After our pipes burst we’ve been fighting with insurance, mold services and contractors to move forward. The bulk of the big work is done but Daniel, we could really use you and Lowe’s to help us finish one of our spaces. It’s so tough for my husband and I to do DIY projects with a newborn in tow! I’m a long time reader of your blog and world love to collaborate on my home!

OMG so excited to enter this. You’re my favorite blogger of all time and the state of my backyard is hurting my soul. Power combo of a potentially awesome outcome. On another note, I gave my staghorn a sunburn the other day. – Amanda, aka the asshole who gave you advice on your fern

I’m so sad I live abroad. I live 1 hour away by train from Paris, sure you don’t want to bend the rules and come over ?
I own the nicest little rowhouse, and it’s mid-renovations, like you love them ! I also have a black door that I (secretly) call the “Manhattan nest’s door”. Oh, and a lot of black. I really love your style, and I love how you’re so good at figuring out spaces and keeping them cool and modern, yet it doesn’t scream “a decorator was here”. That the kind of effortlessness I’m aspiring to !
So. How about a trip to Paris ? Tempted ? (I know, rules, rules, rules. I hate rules).

PICK ME PLEASE! This would be super helpful as I just closed on my first house this past Friday. If its a super healthy budget my back patio is pretty sad and could use help, but a Daniel designed library could also be pretty awesome.

I am concerned about the requirement that ‘all makeovers must be able to be completed in 24 hours’ part. What kind of makeover is this specifically just a re-arrangement of existing furniture, then? I know that I personally cannot complete projects that require painting in under 24 hours, but maybe a blogger with the help of Lowes could??

Aghhhh..
We’re not closing on our home until 3/11! I could REALLY use your advice..it’s a post and beam home w/ a butterfly roof -interior untouched since it was built in 1968..some of it so good and some so bad.

omg… I wish I knew what kind of space you’d be most excited about! Because I have them all! We just bought our house last summer and it turns out, getting shit done with a baby and another baby on the way is actually pretty hard.

And we are (kinda) local to you!! Yay for Hudson Valley!

Ok, so you tell me… we have a fun family room with beams that need to be wrapped (currently they are just cable ties), a horrendous kitchen that has wood cabinets dying for paint job and fancy new appliances (and lots of other stuff), an outdoor patio that is a blank slate, a small 3 piece bathroom, a boring bedroom and a dreary laundry room!

Why oh why wont they let me enter 20 times so you could have your pick!

Wow, this is so cool. What an exciting opportunity for you and the lucky owners you’ll be working with. I’m actually kind of glad that I’m a renter and thus ineligible – the tension of hoping you’d choose me would have just been unbearable! Now I am happy to sit on the sidelines and wait for the BIG REVEAL. I know it’s months down the road but I can’t wait to see what you end up doing!!

Just applied—it’s 18 degrees here with an intense windchill, but I videoed my backyard nevertheless. I would be SO over the moon to meet you Daniel (and I love Kim & Scott and Chris & Julia, too—but I picked you!). As a fellow single homeowner, you can understand my pain of having WAY too many projects and not enough time/resources to accomplish them. Fingers crossed! (And you’d meet my *adorable* fur baby, CeCe the basset hound!)

I gasped when I saw this contest. You and I live parallel lives Daniel. You bought an old house out in the boonies, I bought an old house in the boonies. You repaired your plaster walls, I was repairing mine. You leveled your ceiling joists, mine were being leveled. You removed the paint off your clapboards, I started stripping mine (sadly your approach won’t work on mine). The list goes on. This blog keeps me sane when everyone tells me I was nuts to buy this place. I entered, but won’t get too excited. With money-pits, we just can’t get our hopes up. I look forward to seeing this play out!

So excited!! I just submitted :) This is my first house and my confidence in doing small and large-scale home improvement projects actually came from reading your blog for so long! If Daniel can do it, so can I. Good luck picking the winner! I’m sure there are lots of worthy rooms (though I hope mine is the best….. haha)

Sent in my application yesterday for my house in Rockland County – and occurred to me just a few minutes ago to submit one for my garden level condo in Brooklyn- either one desperately needs your help. You’d be welcome to chose a room or outdoor space and do whatever your heart (and Lowes) desired.

I’m like you – a city mouse gone country. I feel in love with my place in Rockland County and never looked back – you know how it is – the first few months of the renovation I bathed in the slop sink…but I was happy! Now it’s 2.5 years later and I’m burnt out. Have a look at the photos..ask me for more and you decide what you want to do. Woot!!

Come up – make my house a home – I’ll brew coffee while we work. We’d have such fun!

Hi Daniel – this is so exciting! I love your blog. I would love to apply but I have a quick question. We live in Madison, WI (which I think you would love to come visit) but the closest Lowe’s is 45 minutes away. Can we apply without a Lowe’s in town? We have a terrifying 1/2 bath in a very cute old house that is screaming for some help!

P.S. – I was the one who emailed you a few months ago about finding the Saarinen tulip table spray painting silver. Thank you so much for your help – I can’t remember if I emailed you back to say that it worked! I should have sent a before/after pic but it looks great :)

I’m still a renter but one of my best friends just made a big move across the country from Portland, OR to NYC and bought a place! She needs so much help! If she gets picked maybe I can be her super cool bff that will help with painting!

zomg just applied! Daniel, haven’t you always wanted to visit Boulder, Colorado (OK fine, just north of Boulder) and remodel a kitchen in an 1880s brick house?? Thanks for being funny and smart and filled with good ideas on your blog – I enjoy it so much!

EEEEE! I did it! I was debating commenting, but when I told my mom (we both love and read the blog obsessively, from my days in a Brooklyn brownstone “garden apt”—not fooling anyone that’s definitely a basement, sir.—to my 1895 farmhouse in Virginia) that I applied and she said: “If Daniel comes to the house I am going to be SO excited. Like a real fan girl.” Mekko and Linus more than welcome, of course.

Daniel, I have admired your site and skills for years. I have followed along and tried to re-create things you have done and have even purchased wallpaper you used, like a total creep. I just submitted my application for a full blow laundry room makeover. And this may or may not persuade you, but I have a really cute dog you can hang with if we get chosen. Just saying.

This is so cool! I just submitted my application, requesting you Daniel! I’ve been admiring your work here…you’ve been doing *such* a great job. Make sure to treat yourself (Birch offers nice massages at a decent price!) because all the hard work you do is, well, hard work. Thanks for being one of the best bloggers too. I keep coming back to your blog because you really do have a way with words. Thanks also for teaming up with Lowe’s for this. And thank you for you!

Ahhh I just applied. I am so excited about this! I’ve been following your blog since I stumbled upon your desk redo on Door 16. And I very recently used your faux fireplace idea to redo an old mantle that was sitting in my garage. I love your style and really hope you pick us to help give our space some more love. This fixer upper could use a fresh pair of eyes and a fresh boost of creative energy.

Got it in (shitty night-time pictures and all)! If you pick me, you’ll be coming home to Virginia! We have a crazy old hand-dug well out back and half-demolished back (servant’s?) staircase plus two dogs so you won’t miss Linus and Mekko too much. And one of they guys at my local Lowe’s is named Wink (he’s super helpful) and my theory is that he was a sniper in the military and that’s how he got the nickname Wink. I almost asked him the other day but I feel like I’ll be disappointed if my completely baseless story isn’t true and it’s just his real name.

And congrats on the opportunity to do this with Lowe’s – you should absolutely have your own HGTV show!

Just applied. Pick me! Pick me! You know you want to escape winter for a little trip to Austin. Hoping you can work your magic on my sad little backyard…if my two pups don’t lick you to death first. :)

Ack! I could’ve sworn I read “11:59 PST,” and so I missed the deadline! Where’s the West Coast love?? All the same, in prepping for this I formed some definite ideas on what to do with our back patio, so I’m going to count that as a win. I assume we will see the end results?

So excited! I’ve been reading but almost never commenting for ages! My husband blames your blog for the missing shingles on our house because you encourage me to “investigate” what might be hidden beneath the decades of reno sitting on top of our Greek Revival jewel (ps, it was indeed the original clapboards hidden under those shingles…so all the shingles will be disappearing soon…)

Anyway, please pick us! We will have so much fun and will definitely reward you with some Rhode Island clambakes!–Shannon in Bristol, RI

My husband just completed the application today. I realize that this may be too little too late since it was due yesterday. Our cat ended up at the vet with kidney failure and so we had some hard decisions to make and just saw this! Someone is going to be very lucky having you design a space for them!!

Ah! I applied, and the waiting is absolute agony! I’m hoping the promise of beautiful Napa Valley, and expensive wine bribes will tip the scale in our favor. Even if we aren’t picked, this was a wonderful exercise to put into words why our house is just NOT working for us.

I applied! (Before the deadline.) My bathroom is in need of serious help. Ugly 90’s textured wall paper everywhere. I mean everywhere-the molding, the baseboards, the linen cabinet, even the door! It’s nuts. I want to do a full gut remodel eventually but for now it just needs to have a better focus than…wallpaper. Help!

Hi Daniel. If I had paid attention sooner I would have applied for a bathroom renovation by you! It’ll be interesting to see what you end up doing. We are very impressed with the final results of the back exterior of your house. It’s so nice to see an old house being so sensitively and beautifully renovated. Happy 2016! Hope to be seeing you!

Danielz!!! I am super crossing my fingers to be chosen by YOU!!! You could not only help me add character and functionality to my kitchen (don’t worry, it’s small) but then you could come frolic in SF too! Bring the dogs! Bring your sass! Bring your wisdom and love for pretty things! I’ve been following you since the beginning and you’ve inspired me so many times, from doing quick fixes in my old, rented apartment to my current house. I love that you take on so many challenges and seeing them through to fruition! xoxo

Me too! I actually don’t have the final-final say—I narrowed down to three finalists and the Lowe’s team is in the process of making the final selection…which is good, because I COULD NOT for the life of me choose!! Even just my first round of reviews was super brutal and still left about 75 candidates on the table…if Lowe’s was up for it, I’d have just spent the next few years doing all of them!